I wanted to suggest that we as humans had put these creatures on a pedestal of exoticism and rarity, disguised as conservational and in the best interests of all, yet also suggesting to the darker corporate truth that these animals were infact being exploited for their falsely constructed value and used as a promotional tool. Another key theme I wanted to capture was the unnatural nature of the entire situation, and an overriding sense that this is not how things are supposed to be, an accident waiting to happen if you will.
As well as combining these themes into a fine art context, I considered the image of a white tiger balanced precariously atop a classical column pedestal. I thought this could call on many powerful connotations such as humankind's pursuit of aesthetics, something the tigers have truly fallen foul of since the start, as well as almost colonial ideals of desire and acquisition of the rare and exotic. Just as columns are taken out of their classical context and re-purposed for use and abuse as an iconic symbol, so was the tiger taken from its environment and genetically altered to suit our unnecessary cosmetic desires. This also critiques our general right on the whole to obtain and display living creatures, casting wider speculation on our rights to consider living creatures as aesthetic objects of visual interest.On another level there is also interesting juxtaposition between the realms of classical human achievement in the column and the evolutionary prowess of what is typically a magnificent predator, but this is interrupted when we consider that actually everything within the image is actually a product of human dominion. We are then confronted with the unnaturalness of the scenario, and also a sense of gradually impending uncertainty, as there could be no doubt in anyones mind that this is a poor place to put a tiger and will undoubtably not end well. It is irresponsible to try to put a wild animal into the confines of a very human institution, such as displayed on a pedestal in a gallery, not entirely unlike the irresponsibility demonstrated by selectively breeding in extremely negative genetic traits just because they are 'beautiful'.
Although I liked the sketches, something that was important to me was making the piece look convincing, despite its unrealistic composition, and I felt my initial sketches looked a bit proportionally false. So I had a go at creating some photoshop collages from real images in an attempt to blend the juxtaposing formats together with increased realism.
At first I tried using images I had already found correctly posed and simply sticking them overtop, even attempting to add multiple tigers just to see what it looked like. However I still felt like these images were too static in appearance and didn't really do anything to connect the viewer with the subject. They also werent dynamic enough for the sitaution I felt, and didn't give the composition any fluidity or emotion.
Next I tried to create a collage from lots of similar images to actually fit the form of the tiger onto the plinth. By doing this I was able to contruct the tiger sitting a way which looked much more natural in its place.
When I took these initial ideas to Matthew in my tutorial he was actually very impressed with this final collage in itself, and suggested that this also lended a kind of genetic mismatch, frankenstein quality in itself, which I had not considered. He also likened the collage quality to the black and white works of Peter Kennard and asked if I would consider it standing as an outcome in itself.Although I agree that I did quite like the collage on it's own, especially now when considering it in a genetic chimera sense, a big part of my enjoyment in my work is the hands on process I go through to create my images. One of the things I am most excited about for this piece is actually getting to work in very close detail on a tiger to create a powerful image, so I definitely want to continue working on this composition further in a traditional medium. However I would now also like to print out the source images I used to create this initially and also create a proper physical collage from the photos. I think this would also aid the visual synthesis of my ideas whilst I work on the motif of the white tiger.
Matthew also suggested I could make the piece into a sculpture, which would be entirely another challenge in itself and would continue to lend a labour intense nature to the work. It would also increase my exploration of the white tiger motif as a metaphor for human desire and excess.
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